


Stronger than mithril

by Melvds



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-23
Updated: 2015-01-23
Packaged: 2018-03-08 19:07:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3220097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melvds/pseuds/Melvds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thorin deceived his nephews into wearing mithril. Tauriel and Kili have a second chance but they soon find it won't be easy. The prejudices are big, certainly combined with the rebuilding of a kingdom. But the love these two share is strong and with help from an unexpected angle, will they manage to get through it all?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Yes, I know that Kili had to die, I know that it was canon. But still I like to think that there was some alternative middle-earth where the two of them manage to defeat the odds and have a life together. This is it.**

**I don’t own any of the characters, they are the result of the genius called Tolkien, and of Peter Jackson. Hope you enjoy it.**

**_Introduction_ **

_Her body was tired but she managed to climb back up again with Legolas’ support. Once there he helped her, the woman he loved, lower herself next to the body of the man she loved. An anguished cry escaped her as she now had the time to take it in that the future she had finally allowed herself to hope for could never be._

_Legolas wanted to comfort her but what could he possibly say to begin with? He would never understand the feelings she had for the dwarf. How she, an elf, a firstborn created by Eru himself could harbour feelings for one of Aulë’s creatures. But what he mostly couldn’t understand was how he, who had been there for her for over 600 years could never awaken even a fragment of the feelings in her heart, which the dwarf managed to truly unleash in just a couple of days. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it, would never understand it, but respected her all the more for managing to do it. To break the walls that were so tightly build between the two races and fill the new gape up with love. And so, he took a few steps back and let her express her grief._

_“Do you think that this is the will from the valar?” She asked as she stroked the dwarf’s cheeks “Do you think they couldn’t allow the love we felt for one another, that they decided to take it away from us?”_

_“I… I don’t know.” Was his response. He thought it possible but had the sense not to tell her that at this moment for it meant that what she and the dwarf had was so wrong that even the gods couldn’t allow it._

_“If it was… I don’t understand why it was their will that I lived. Why I have to carry this burden. I want it gone. I.. I feel like I’m choking on it.”_

_He knelt down beside her and placed his arm on her shoulder. “There is no cure for loss. Even if you did have extra years together, you were bound to lose him anyway. He doesn’t possess the gift of immortality.”_

_Legolas finally looked at the face of the dwarf that lay fallen before him and saw what Tauriel in her grief could not. He took his dagger and held it close to the dwarf’s nose. It was very irregular but it was there. So slowly one could easily miss it, the breath of the dwarf was fogging the blade._

_Not saying anything, as to not give her hope yet he opened the dwarf’s outer armour and found it there hidden underneath, mithril._

_“He’s alive, he was wearing mithril.” He jumps up and starts examining the dwarf further._

_“But why is he in such a state then?” Tauriel asked, not yet daring to believe that it was true._

_“The blow was heavy, most of his ribs are broken and I think one is piercing his left lung. There’s also one piercing through his skin, that’s where the blood’s coming from. We must take him down to the healers. He’s not dead but he’s not living yet either Tauriel.“_

_“Hang on my love,” Tauriel whispered to the dwarf in front of her “I’m here. Hang on for me.”_

_They used an old door to help carry him without worsening his state. Moving as steady and fast as they could without harming him. As elves they managed to do this at still a good speed. All the way down she prayed, to every vala that there was, hoping that it would help him, hoping that one of them might help her._

_When they finally reached the camp of the elven healers he was still alive but hanging there by barely a thread. The healers took over and started working on him yet there was no persuading Tauriel to leave Kili’s side. This earned her a few judging looks as her affection for the dwarf was obvious but she didn’t see them, and if she could have she’d ignore them. Her Kili was fine, safe, the battle was over and by the first diagnosis of the elves he would face a hard recovery but live nonetheless. She didn’t know who else had lived or died, who would enter the halls of Mandos tonight. She wasn’t thinking about any of them. Her grief for those who had passed would follow after she had lived through this joy._

_Legolas looked upon the scene and felt his own heart ache. The dwarf had been lucky, very lucky indeed. The valar were with them after all and it meant both the loss of the woman he loved as the crumbling of every belief he grew up with about the relations between elves and other races. He needed time alone. Time to think about the changes that took place and he knew he wouldn't find them here, not with the people where he grew up learning these beliefs. He went out of the tent, he had to find his father and talk to him._

**Hoped you liked the idea, let me know in a review. It’s the first time I dared to write in the universe of Tolkien, even though I’ve been a fan since I was 12 or so.**


	2. Chapter 2

Thankfully, broken bones and wounds were quite easy to heal for the elves, but Kili was weakened and it took some time until he had regained enough strength to wake up. The elves had placed him in a separate tent to recover, not wanting the tension Tauriel’s obvious affections and concerns for the dwarf created within their ranks to be a bother for the other patients.

Tauriel herself didn’t want to leave his side for one second, eating and sleeping in the same tent as she guarded over Kili. On the third day he still hadn’t awoken though all the signs showed that he soon would. She had seated herself next to his bed and had taken his hand in hers.

“A messenger has been send to the dwarves just now, they’re told that you are fine and healing and that they are welcome to visit you at any time. They don’t want to move you again until you’ve woken up. What’s taking you so long my love?” she asked as she let her hand brush through his hair, “I know your wounds need time and that you were weakened, you nearly died after all. But you’re having me so worried here. What on earth are you doing to me? My whole life, which has been longer than your grandfather’s I must say, I’ve been a strong woman, a fighter. And here you have my entire will to live in your hands.”

A tear rolled over her cheek as she continued to look at him.

“It’s what love does to us.” A voice behind her spoke, she turned around and saw Thandruil standing there, she hadn’t heard him coming into the tent. Stubbornly Tauriel looked back at Kili’s form.

“I thought you didn’t believe it was love?”

“I didn’t, couldn’t fathom the idea of an elf loving a dwarf, still can’t. But Legolas told me what happened the day of the battle and I must say, it made me believe that perhaps it is possible, by some strange ways of the valar.”

Tauriel turned around to look at her king and that’s when she saw it, the weakness in his eyes, the unmoving king had known love and lost it. He may not know the way love worked, neither did she, but he had known it enough to recognize it when it was there. She realised why he never talked to Legolas about his mother. If she had lost Kili that day, she knew the pain would be too intense, too great, to express in words.

“I’m sorry…”

“For which specific, ignored command are you sorry?”

“Not one, and I think you understand me when I say that. I can’t regret ignoring them for they made sure that the man I loved is still here today. But I am sorry for saying that you never knew love in your life, I can now see that you’ve known it deeply.”

The king in front of her merely nodded his head not being a man of many words when it came down to his emotions, actually a man of no words when his own emotions were concerned. He exited the tent but halted just a moment.

“The path you have chosen is not easy. There will be a lot of opposition. I hope you realise I can’t let you continue in your function and position. There will be a lot of your kind that won’t accept your choice and won’t respect you for it.”

“I realise that.” She had already seen the looks some of the elf healers had given her the past days.

“You are like a daughter to me, but I can’t allow you to stay at Mirkwood for now, when you’re in love with a dwarf. The tensions are still too high. But I want you to know that even though politics force me to banish you from my kingdom, I’m not banishing you from my heart. Should you and the dwarf need help, all you have to do is ask.”

Tauriel opened her mouth wanting to thank him as she knew how hard it was for him to say those words and how grateful she was for what he said. But at that moment a cough behind made her turn around to the form behind her. Kili was waking up, having a severe coughing fit that made it hard for him to breath.

“I’m here.” She said as she helped him up so he could catch some more breath.

“My lungs, they’re burning.”

“Pierced lungs will have that effect on you. They’re healing now, you’ve been lucky.”

His lungs calmed down again, still aching heavily but at least he was getting the oxygen he needed. He had indeed been lucky he thought as the memories of the battle field returned.

“Fili wasn’t…”

“What do you mean?”

“Azog got to him. He was wearing mithril like me and Thorin, but I guess the fall killed him, he fell in front of me.”

She gave him a reassuring smile, glad she could relieve him from that burden “Kili, Fili lives. They found him and got him to one of the healer camps. He was in a bad shape, worse than you and his recovery will be longer but your brother is very much alive.”

A relief like he had never felt before washed over him as he heard the news. He couldn’t help but laugh loudly which resulted in another painful coughing fit.

“I’m glad I don’t have to be the heir to the throne,” he said once he recovered and lay down against his pillow “would’ve been a rather bad one.”

Tauriel’s eyes looked alarmed, she had just given him the reassurance of his brother living, but would have to give him bad news after all it seemed. He noticed it and sat up again.

“What, what is it?”

“Kili… You are the heir to the throne.” Her voice was hesitating, not sure how to go on next “Thorin… Thoring your uncle has fallen… Fili is king now.”

The pain in his eyes was so obvious that she almost felt it herself. Her hand went to his, taking it but he didn’t even seem to notice it.

“How?” was all he could bring out after a moment of silence.

“From what we gathered he was fighting Azog, it was just your uncle and him. We found Azog with your uncle’s blade buried deep inside of him but your uncle was heavily wounded as well, he had received a mortal blow to his stomach.”

Kili felt confused as he listened, surely that was a mistake? He remembered his uncle giving them a mithril hauberk, holding one himself in his hands. Surely he had worn that one?

“But… he was wearing mithril, just like us.” He cried out, voicing his confusion, frantically, looking at her, daring her to contradict his last shred of hope that this was all a mistake, like Fili’s dead. And that his uncle would be waiting for him at the mountain.

“Kili… he wasn’t. He was wearing his normal armour. No mithril was found.”

“Then he lied, he lied because he knew we wouldn’t wear it if he didn’t.”

Tauriel crawled onto the bed and held him in her arms as his grief sank in. Despite his hurt and anger he welcomed her touch, returning it, almost needing it.

“He tried to save your life. He was your uncle, he felt responsible to you.”

Kili shook his head, “No, that wasn’t his concern. He was responsible to his kingdom, he was king, I was a soldier. I should’ve given my life for him! He should’ve known that was my job.”

“Your king didn’t want that. Can’t you see? He wanted to be your uncle first, king second.”

“And what about my honour?”

Tauriel was silent, knowing what he meant. They were the same in that manner. The normal thing a soldier would hear is that he followed his kings commands even though they may not have been the wisest of them. If he listened and followed those, he was an honourable soldier. But they were different in that regard. Both having a desire to do the right thing the way their heart dictates it to them above the way their king did.

She had ignored every command her king gave her to save the man she loved and to help defeat the evil that was infesting all the lands, not just hers. He having a fierce desire to protect his king, his kin and his kingdom against all dangers, even if it meant giving up his own life.

His mother called him reckless, she would call him the bravest men she knew.

“Your intentions were there Kili, you would’ve died for your king. You didn’t know, that wasn’t your fault.”

“I think it had to do with his own honour… the tales he told about Azog. I think he wanted to face him and kill him with equal weapons.”

“And he did just that.”

“Yeah…” he mused, “I guess he did. What happens now? Are you going to leave again?”

Tauriel could feel her heart beat faster “Do you want me to?”

“You know I do. When Bolg tried to kill me, I saw you looking at me at me and I felt hope. I figured if I die now at least I know that she loved me.”

“Strange how you must sometimes feel as if you’re losing something to realise that you can’t live without it.”

He moved his lips closer to hers, she eagerly allowed him, returning the kiss.

They remained silent after they broke apart, both lost in their own world of thoughts as they held each other. There was still a lot to be talked about but for now they needed the quiet and the reassurance that the other was there, still alive and not going anywhere. How long they had been like that they didn’t know, could’ve been only 10 minutes, could’ve been hours. They were interrupted when a female elf walked in, not really able to hide the look of disgust on her face as she saw the way the dwarf and elf were holding each other.

“Prince Kili, you have visitors.”

Tauriel got up from her place and arranged his pillow to allow him to sit up as Bofur, Dwalin and Ori walked into the room.

“Get your stuff lad, we’re here to take you away from these elves. You may grab his stuff she-elf, he won’t be bothering you anymore.” Dwalin commanded, getting straight down to business.

“The she-elf’s name is Tauriel, Dwalin. And she’s coming with us.”

He got up with the help of Tauriel and both Dwalin and Ori looked dumbfounded at the sight before them. Bofur however smiled.

“Good to see you back lady Tauriel. I see you got your question answered hen laddie.” He teased as he helped her get him up.

“Can someone explain to me what is going on here? Don’t tell me it is what I think it is.”

“If you’re asking me if I’ve fallen in love with an elf then yes, it’s true.” Kili groaned as he tried to put on his clothes “And you own her your respect and gratitude, if it weren’t for her, you’d be collecting a corpse here.”

“If it weren’t for her we’d be collecting a corpse far sooner than that.” Bofur spoke up for her.

“But she’s an elf! How is that even possible.” Dwalin roared

“Don’t ask us to explain it, I don’t know if either of us can. But I know that it’s there and that it’s true. She’s going with us. The only one who can forbid that is the king and that’s who I like to see now. Take me to my brother.”

Dwalin shook his head but allowed her to go with them nevertheless. Showing clearly that he did not like the situation.

“My brother won’t like this either you know.” he muttered.

“I expect a great many number of dwarves won’t like this but they’re going to have to live with it.”

Tauriel looked at the scene with regret in her heart, she knew that things wouldn’t be easy and that a rift might be caused within the dwarves. As much as she loved Kili, she didn’t want to separate him from his family.

**Well, this was the first complete chapter. Hope you liked it. Let me know!**


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